Thanks Guangzhou…We Had Fun! :)

Have you ever heard of squeaky shoes? They’re darling little shoes that go ‘squeak – squeak – squeak’ when you walk. They’re mostly made for little toddler girls, you can buy them almost anywhere here, and they run a whopping 3-5 dollars a pair. It’s kind of a rule that when you adopt a little girl in China, you have to buy them little Chinese dresses and squeaky shoes in Guangzhou. The White Swan nearly squeaks itself there are so many little Chinese girls here. I heard a little tiny girl (undoubtedly holding onto her parents hands) walk past our hotel room this afternoon…squeak, squeak, squeak she went, down the hall. It made me smile. This hotel is just full of life. Little girls with their squeaky shoes, new parents, and repeat offenders like Kevin and I, congratulating each other, and eating breakfast together. Everyone smiles and talks in the elevator, asking about their children, what province they came from, and how their children are doing. It’s a cheerful place to be.

Leila and Jane (our 2 coordinators) took anyone interested (which was all 6 families) to church on Sunday morning. I didn’t know they had Christian churches in China. Turns out they have a Christian and Catholic church, both on Shamian Island. The one we went to was a little yellow church (one room chapel) about a half a block away from the hotel. I liked it. The service was packed! The words to the songs were up on a screen, alternating one in Chinese, then one in English. Kate, however, did not care for the service, and let us know that she would appreciate getting out of there ASAP. We have come to see a pattern in her behavior…she does not do well in crowds. I think it is just too stressful for her. She has lived her whole life seeing the same 15 faces, day in and day out, and shoulder to shoulder people is just too much.

In many ways, Kate is like a 12-13 mo. old. She can walk, but will only walk far enough to get back to clutch on to my pant leg. If I just set her down, she will either cry, or just sit down (or both). She will still crawl to get from point A to point B. We went to the playroom downstairs, set up for toddlers, and I sat on the carpet next to a couple other parents and their little ones. I thought she would be cruising the place in 10-15 minutes, but was somewhat surprised to see that she had no desire to explore. It literally took her a hour and a half to get up the courage to move 12 inches from me. She does not like any toys with a face, and chucked a cute little Dora the Explorer doll out of the toys. I said, “Oh, be nice to Dora” She picked up the 4 in. tall Dora by her little plastic pigtail, and threw her again. Okee dokee.

A couple of mornings ago, Kate leaned over and kissed me, and smiled…completely spontaneously. As I’m looking at her, thinking how sweet she is, the look on her face changes as if she has just remembered something and she punches me. (not hard). It just hit me funny…I mean, I know it’s not funny because she is still…torn and confused, but to go from one extreme to the other in about 15 seconds flat was funny. The same day, she took my hand and put it on her cheek. (I’ve been touching her face a lot and she seems to like my palm on her cheek and will try to lie on my hand). Then she will take her own baby hands and put them on my cheeks, and look lovingly at me. She seems to want to melt in to love and relax and take it all in, but there’s something in the back of her mind that say’s “Don’t do it! Don’t give in!”

The afternoon was full! We went to the swearing-in ceremony, that to be very honest, I wasn’t even really sure what it was for. Is this to make the adoption final? Is this for her citizenship? We were asked to dress nicely (preferably not jeans) and we all loaded on to the bus and traveled to the other side of the city…at least it felt like it was that far. Turns out it was for neither of the reasons I had guessed, but simply to raise your right hand and swear that any and all documents for the adoption are true to the best of your knowledge. We did so, while little kids were squirming and a few were crying. Cameras were not allowed in, so we took pictures outside. As I stood up to raise my right hand in a mass ceremony with a roomful of adoptive parents, I look at Kevin and Kate and feel so proud to be with them, and out of the corner of my eye I see Cheerios stuck to the shoulder of my black shirt. So much for looking dignified.

Later on, we all went on a dinner cruise, on one of the boats that are lit up. It was really fun. We sat with another couple who adopted a 2 ½ year old little boy with special needs, and Kate ate lots of rice and the little cookies at the end of the table. It was a very simple environment…the tables were not much bigger than card tables, and the food was…well, not exactly spectacular, but the lights on the river were amazing. It was like staring at a Christmas tree. We took lots of pictures, but it’s funny to see the picture of me holding Kate at the back of the boat, and I’m smiling, with both of my arms wrapped around her, clutching her tightly. I was so afraid that I would trip or something and she would go flying over the edge and I would have to jump in the polluted (although it doesn’t look like it) water, at night, and save her. (I’m afraid of dark, deep water at night! But I still would’ve jumped in :)

Oh, and to those of you who wondered why we had to come to Guangzhou after adopting her in her province…I found out that Guangzhou is the only American Embassy in China that issues Immigrant Visas. The children are issued a special Visa for people qualified as orphans, so they can enter the United States. China will always consider them Chinese citizens though. The American lady leading the swearing-in ceremony told us when the kids are bigger and if they decide to travel to China, PLEASE have them travel using their American passport, otherwise, if they have any type of issue and come to them for help, the American embassy will not be able to intervene on their behalf, and China will view them only as Chinese citizens. The American embassy will be powerless to help.

To end, Kate has blossomed, and spent half the day laughing…not the heavy breathing, quiet laugh of earlier in the week, but big happy laughs. She has different little games she plays with each of us. With Kevin, she says “AHH!” to which Kevin repeats it, then “AAHHH!” and puts both hands on her chest for emphasis. This goes on and on and Kate thinks it is very funny. Mommy pretends to eat Kate’s baby arms, Kate giggle, giggle, giggles, then puts her arm back out for Mommy to do it all over again. It’s hard not to be cheerful when a small child is laughing.

We are off tomorrow morning at 6:30am (The plane leaves at 9:30) I can’t express to you how much I’m looking forward to the 14 hrs. of flying with a 20 month old. Really! I mean, I personally cannot think of a more entertaining way to cross the ocean...

P.S. The pictures below were taken on a walk in the "thick" of the shopping district. You have never seen so many people in one place!